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Last week: (static) stretching plays less of a role in performance and injury prevention than we think, but old habits are hard to change.

So then - what do?

Q: If performance enhancement and injury prevention are the goals, and stretching ain't getting it done, what should be done instead?A:The beautiful marriage of mobility & strength followed by a progressive activation of the muscles you're about to use - aka proper warm-up.

Mobility: foam rolling, soft tissue work, active release technique, those things. They can be great at locally increasing blood flow and increasing range of motion. This time - without the decrease in power output (performance) that's seen with static stretching.*Strength: when it comes to preventing injury, there's literally nothing better than getting strong

Really. Strength protects, strength gets results. Don't skip leg day.

Eccentrically loading a muscle (lengthening a muscle under force) is a great way to 1) increase range of motion, 2) strengthen, 3) activate (↑ blood flow, ↑neural drive) the muscle before exercise.

Homework:

Before your next run, try some soft tissue mobility followed by 1-2 rounds of strength. Save the stretching for after, if you've done all of your other strength & mobility work first.Sauce:*Magnusson (2002) 2x :45 sec stretch had no significant effectSource: To stretch or not to stretch: the role of stretching in injury prevention and performance. McHugh MP, Cosgrave CH.

Is stretching even helpful?

Runners are dogmatic about stretching. It's the cause of everyone's problems. "If only I had stretched more this darn Achilles wouldn't be acting up." Maybe - but more likely, stretching plays less of a role than people think.

Why do we stretch: besides the answer - "because it's what we've always done," stretching is believed to 1) reduce risk of injury by decreasing muscle stiffness or increasing muscle compliance and 2) improve performance by having an optimal ROM, freer movement pattern.​

​What does stretching actually do? Stretching, done long enough, does improve your range of motion and makes muscles more stretchy. For about 8 minutes*. It does this by decreasing motor neuron excitability (neural effect) and a visco-elastic effect - or - the soft-tissue itself becoming more malleable.

How long: the sweet-spot seems to be between 4 sets of :60 to :90 seconds. 2 sets of :45 seconds had no significant effect on range of motion.** Yeah - that's a long time to stretch those hammys.

The problem: stretching actually impairs strength and power output. You may be more bendy, but that decrease in motor neuron excitability has also decreased your ability to produce power. Not ideal if you're about to dodge cars in Midtown.

Stretching: Final Words (for this week...) there's nothing wrong with it. I would save it for after the run, if you have time, but don't expect that flexibility to last more than an hour. It feels good, it can be helpful, but not as important as we continue to believe.

Next week: things to do that are more effective & time-efficient for performance and injury prevention.

* Ryan et al (2008) 4x:30 sec stretch program reversed after 8 minutes **Magnusson (2002) 2x :45 sec stretch had no significant effect Source: To stretch or not to stretch: the role of stretching in injury prevention and performance. McHugh MP, Cosgrave CH.

​I keep foam rolling ...I stretched for 30 minutes every day ...I've been icing...I've taken 2 weeks completely off ... and it still hurts.

Below describes why taking time off and passive treatments won't get you back to the starting line.​

TISSUE CAPACITY DEFINED:

The ability of your tissues (muscle, tendon, ligament, bone) to handle the stresses placed on them. Simply: are you strong enough or not? If your capacity (think strength) exceeds the stress (training workload: running, lifting, throwing, etc), you're in good shape and injury is less likely to occur. If the training stress is greater than your tissue capacity, you're at higher risk for injury(1). With that imbalance of stress>capacity, injury can arise from a large spike in stress (example: running a marathon with zero training) or more gradually (bony stress injury, tendinopathy, and more). Both scenarios account for the majority of running injuries, and almost always, the answer is to get stronger.​

REST.

The problem with resting is that by taking time off, the tissue will become weaker. There is a detraining effect. It takes 6 weeks to build muscle, but only 10 days to lose that fitness(2). By taking 1 week, 2 weeks off, you're often in a weakened and more vulnerable state than before (the tissue capacity has decreased). The symptoms may have decreased for now, but your return to sport is likely to be riddled with a cycle of injury, rest, injury, rest. Foam roll all you want, the tissue still isn't ready to handle the training loads.

Some injuries, some of the time, require a period of "relative rest." The goal of relative rest is to decrease the load into the injured tissue while maintaining as high level of fitness as possible. This could be in the form of cross training, a run:walk program, shoe-wear/gait change, or some other modification. Almost always, the answer is to modify, not completely stop, running.​

GET STRONG.

During that period of relative rest, a strength program should be managed to progressively build up tissue capacity to adequately meet the demands of running.

Foam rolling, icing, and stretching are useful adjuncts and certainly have their place. The problem is when these adjuncts take the valuable time needed for strengthening and building tissue capacity. When time is limited (when is it not?), opt to get strong.​

TAKEAWAYS:

Injuries occur when the training stress exceeds the capacity of the tissue. In order to tackle the problem, tissue capacity must increase (or the stress must decrease).

Taking complete rest is almost never the answer, and will likely leave you in a weakened, more vulnerable state. This often leads to a cycle of injury, rest, injury, rest.

Foam rolling, icing, stretching, are all useful adjuncts, but don't get to the root of the problem and don't protect from future injury. Get strong.